Knuckles
by Madhog thy Master
Summary: And so... He darted to face the ghost... And he got more than he bargained for. "Tails" Saga: Episode 5.


**KNUCKLES**

* * *

The smell was still un-mistakable… Even after all these years… The putrid stink of Death engulfed the entire zone.

He could easily sense it. The wind helped him do it.

He was accustomed to it, he lived all his life in it's company… Death was brought to his people… Death followed him everywhere, like a ghost ready to devour his own soul and feast upon his flesh.

This time, however, it was him that was hunting the ghost. He came to this place… This dead place which has been forgotten by History itself. This abandoned wasteland hold some of the answers that he has been searching for a very long time…

He only had one clue… One item to prove his theory… No, his certainty!

An handgun… With a peculiar symbol on it… The word "Wrath" written in an ancient language.

He also had a name…

The red dreadlocked echidna looked down at the weapon he was holding tightly in his huge fist, then at the ruined city in front of him, and said:

"I'm coming… Kalit."

And he darted to face the ghost.

* * *

**2 days before. Mystic Ruins.**

It hadn't been very long since the "Silver" incident and the mysterious disappearing of Blaze… All the Freedom Fighters from all the various sections of the Militia were now involved in what Knuckles ironically dubbed: "The Chaosdamned Emeralds' Fever".

After the council's decision to collect the legendary, seemingly un-findable, 7 rainbow colored gems before Doctor Eggman could do it, there hasn't been a single moment of peace…

After the defeat of the crazed silver hedgehog, the Mystic Ruins' section already had 2 emeralds, the blue one and the azure one.

After analyzing them, Tails discovered that when a Chaos Emerald was anywhere near one of it's siblings, it started to glow… That gave the brilliant kid, an idea… An idea that involved his prized airplane, the X-Tornado.

He modified the plane's engines in order to make it work with chaos energy, then he placed one of the emeralds inside it's motor and tested it.

The results of the kit's theory were astounding… Not only his flying machine was faster and more resilient but it became the perfect emerald detector!

"Think of what we could do with all the emeralds!" Cheered an excited two-tailed genius.

"Whatever…" The not so enthusiastic response of his redneck leader.

Knuckles and Tails were having a break in the Kitsune's bedroom inside the hidden base… To tell the truth, it was a request of the echidna himself.

"Knuckles… What is the problem?" Asked a now serious Kitsune.

His interlocutor sighed… The kit wasn't stupid, of course he would have suspected something about his leader's request.

"First of all… How's Sally doing?" Sincere concern was depicted in Knuckles's face.

"She's doing just great… After you healed her. She just needed some rest." The young fox looked bemused and sad.

"It wasn't your fault, Tails! You were already fucked up by your own… You couldn't do a damn thing, back there!!" Knuckles reassured, in his own way.

"Thanks… I think." Replied Tails while putting on a weak smile.

"And there is a positive part in all this thing… We've found out you can use the emeralds' power! That's a freaking confirmation that you are a natural selected chosen one! I bet that in just a couple of generations, all the Kitsunes are going to have two tails and be able to fly!"

He added… Already figuring in his mind a whole world full of flying geeky kits… He immediately dismissed the thought, shaking in terror.

Tails gave a look at the jewel he had in his left hand. It was the light blue emerald Sonic brought from Robotropolis after his escape. It had the same color of the kid's eyes… It was wonderful, in a way… And creepy, in another.

Was he really a selected one? Was he really one of the few who could aspire to controlling Chaos itself? Was he part of that legend?

So far, he hadn't been proved wrong… He could summoned a chaos beam with that blue emerald… Would he ever been able to use Chaos Control, too?

Then… Something hit inside the vulpine's mind… Something that he hadn't really thought about… And that was scaring him.

"Knuckles?"

"Mmmh?"

"I killed a person." He quietly muttered, his eyes were fixed on the ground. "I killed a living being like me, not a mindless Badnik or a SWATBot, a person like you and me… And I don't feel any guilt about it." He concluded.

The echidna took a deep breath… He knew all about the kit's torment… He experienced things like that more times than he really wanted to…

This was a war, after all… War changes everything.

He put one of his gargantuan hands on the boy's right shoulder.

"Before joining the F.F. I had to kill in order to survive… I won't say anything more about this topic but know this… You didn't have a choice, that Silver guy was a complete fucked up jackass and he was about to murder Espio… You gave up a life, to save another one." He brotherly reassured him.

Brotherly? Where did that come from?

Tails smiled at him… This conflict has dramatically changed him too… Especially after the recent episodes… Undeniably printed in his young adult mind.

"Ehi boss… You still didn't tell me about the reason of this 'break'!" And now he was wearing a smartass face that, of course, pissed the red warrior.

He sighed again… Then he showed the boy a certain item he was hiding in his big quills.

"That… Is Fang's gun!!!" Yelled a very worried kit.

"Sssssssssh!!! Don't cry it, you dumbass!!"

"Sorry… It's just that… Were did you find it?"

"Nearby the Sniper's rests… In the forest."

"Oh…"

"Look on it's reed."

The kit gave a look at the gun in question (not daring to touch it) and noticed a strange red, circular symbol on it…

"That's the symbol of the word "Wrath"… In the Ancient Echidna language."

The expression in Tails's face seemed quite surprised by that last sentence… How could that be that the echidnas… The once pride and strongest race in Mobius… Had anything to do with human weaponry?

"Say, have you ever heard of a renegade group known as… 'The Wrath of Mobius'?" Asked the older.

Tails nodded. He'd heard about it… It was a well known group, as a matter of fact… A bunch of dangerous rejects who claimed the west territory of Mobius as their own after the destruction caused by the Eggman Empire and it's immediate abandon.

No one knew their true purposes or if they had one at all… The only certain things about this rebellious army, was the fact that it's members had weapons…

And their leader's name… was Kalit.

"I need to find them… Personal reasons." The echidna simply said.

Tails sighed. When Knuckles played the "mysterious cool guy" role, it always meant trouble…

"Fine… I'll tell the others." Replied an emotionless Kitsune.

"Thank you… And good luck with that Chaosdamned fever of yours."

The two comrades shook their hands and then, the echidna just left.

"Good luck to you, too…" The kit muttered under his breath.

* * *

**Present time.**

The devastated ruins were all that was left of the once flourishing city of Westopolis.

The smell was now stronger than ever… Or better, the trace of it's presence… The dead buildings were a good enough clue.

He was not alone. He could sense it.

It's been a while now… They've been watching him, hidden behind the ruins… Waiting the rightful moment to attack.

Knuckles was relaxed… He knew the risks… He knew that nobody ever survived a direct encounter with "The Wrath of Mobius"… He just didn't care.

This was too important… Even more than his own life. He needed to see Kalit… Again.

He finally spoke.

"I'M HERE TO SEE YOUR LEADER!!! MY NAME IS KNUCKLES!! KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA!!! I'M THE COMMANDER OF THE MYSTIC RUINS SECTION OF THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS MILITIA!!! I'M NOT YOUR ENEMY!!!" He yelled all in one breath.

Silence.

The wind blew.

Silence again.

Then… Something started to move… Or better, someone.

In just a few minutes, the red echidna found himself surrounded.

There were a bunch of them… All of the same race.

Mobian hyenas… With machine guns… All with that symbol painted on it. Dead seriousness was showed in their collective gazes. They seemed the kind of persons with all to gain and nothing to lose.

Knuckles braced himself, expecting the worse… Instead, to his relief, they lowered their weapons and, slowly, their group started to split.

Two peculiar figures came in, respectfully greeted by the hyenas.

One was a green duck with a red bandana around his neck and an unstable expression on his eyes…

The other was a very tall polar bear with shaggy hair, he was wearing snow gloves and a winter hat, along with a scarf.

They had weapons too… The bear was holding an average pump-action shotgun while the seemingly deranged bird had bombs… Cartoon like bombs.

A strange guy, indeed.

The bigger of the two started to speak.

"So, you came… Our leader has been waiting for your arrival for a very long time, now." He said with his cold voice.

Then, to the echidna's surprise, all of them kneeled themselves before him.

"Welcome home… Master Knuckles." Again, the bear said.

If awkwardness would have had a physical form… It would have looked like a certain dreadlocked warrior.

* * *

"The Wrath of Mobius" encampment was placed in the former main square of the city… There was a lot of people, more than he had imagined… All rejects… All desperate… Yet, somehow motivated and full of hopes. They truly believed in their master.

He gave a better look at the persons he had around…

There was a very tall ram who was wearing a curious reddish military outfit, he was probably what remained of some random defeated army…

A green furred hedgehog with an ominous scar on his chest that wore a couple of badass sunglasses and a leather jacket… Quite the character.

And then, there was a teen female rabbit (and, to Knuckles's view, a very sexy one), she seemed to have a broken ear and… To the echidna's horror, both her legs and her right arm were mechanical.

He'd heard of people like her… People who miraculously escaped from the Eggman Empire's prisons… Not without a price.

Half-robotizied Mobians… Better known as "Robians". There were only a few of them… For obvious reasons.

"There we are." Muttered the polar bear by the name of Bark. "This is our leader's home…" He said while pointing to the bigger tent in the camp. He smiled at the echidna and added: "Good reunion."

Knuckles entered the tent. He was breathless and utterly nervous… This was it. The moment he's been dreaming for the past decade or so.

The intern was decorated with old masks and spears… Memories of the greatness of his people. Set on a throne partially covered by a couple of curtains, lied the leader of the rebels.

"Kalit" He greeted.

"It's been… So long."

"Too long" Knuckles replied, barely capable of containing his tears.

"Kalit" stood up and he could clearly see her.

She was almost the same age of Knuckles. She had gorgeous blue eyes and her young face was spreading genuine happiness all over. Her outfit seemed to be Mayan… The way ancient echidna mistresses used to wear…

And she was, indeed, an echidna… A beautiful, young, orange furred and dreadlocked, echidna girl.

"Kalit… Or should I call you with your real name… Tikal!" He ultimately added.

And then… They embraced each other… Tightly… Lovingly… And neither of them was able to hold it anymore.

They both cried.

"Knuckles… Oh Knuckles…" She said through her tears.

"It's okay… I'm here now and I won't leave you again… I promise!" He remarked while hugging his long lost older sister.

It didn't matter the circumstances… It didn't matter that she was commanding a rebellious army who resumed to use blaspheme weapons… It didn't matter at all. To him, the only thing important, was to be there… In that precise moment… With his beloved sister.

He knew, somehow he knew that she was still alive. He blamed himself for not getting it earlier… Kalit was a lame pseudonymous.

"You've never had any imagination regard names… You know that?" He joked.

She simply chuckled while tightening the embrace even more, almost in fear that he could disappear again…

There they stood for a while.

A single happy moment… Despite the awfulness of their lives.

* * *

"We couldn't left this wasteland or G.U.N. would have got us… That's why I couldn't looking for you." Tikal, the mistress of "The Wrath of Mobius" Militia, sorely said while re-adjusting herself. "How did you manage to find me, anyway?"

"With this…" The now, re-composed Knuckles showed her the marked handgun he brought with him. "… It belonged to a guy named Fang, did you know him?" He asked.

Tikal sighed, she knew the guy.

"Yes… Fang the Sniper. He's been a member of our group for a while, he happened to be a good shooter, too… The only problem was that he didn't share our ideals… He only believe in Chaos." She said.

Knuckles put on a puzzled face.

"Would you be more specific?"

She sighed again.

"Well… Let's just say that when he joined us for the first time, his motivation was 'to experience what it's like to kill people for an ideal.' That's what he said…"

Knuckles seemed interested in the argument.

"Sooooo… Why did he have 4-fingered hands?"

"Oh, that… One day, he decided he wanted to be a Yakuza and so… He cut off his pinkies. That's it." She casually replied, shrugging her shoulders.

Knuckles's mouth went agape.

"He… Just cut them off… Because he felt like?" Great stupor in his voice.

"And that was just the peak of the ice-berg… Another day, he colored his face in white, his head fur in green and put a red lipstick all around his mouth and then, he pretended to be some kind of a comic book villain, muttering nonsensical lines like 'this planet deserves a better class of a villain!' and then, he would shoot at things randomly for no apparent reason…"

The male echidna was rather shocked in hearing these stories… He couldn't believe there were people like this Fang character… Even Dr Eggman used to put a lot of rationality in his sadistic schemes… But this guy… He just craved Chaos and lived for it without caring for vain concepts like Reason and Order… He just enjoyed his life in his own way.

He could have been admired for this… If he wasn't a deranged psychopath… Then again, in this madness we called Life, perhaps he was the only one sane.

"What happened to him?" Knuckles's older sister asked.

"He's been hired by someone (probably Eggman) to murder a friend of us… And he almost ended up raping a 6 years old bunny girl… He died violently, then." He casually answered.

Tikal put an hand on her forehead and sighed even more loud than before.

"That's definitely of him… He loved… 'To improvise', as he would have put it… And that's exactly the way he would have liked to die."

In the end, Fang the Sniper was and it will always remain a mystery… You cannot pretend to understand Chaos, after all.

Suddenly, Knuckles felt the urge to change the topic.

"What exactly are you doing here… And how did you get all these weapons… And why?" These three questions have been bothering him for quite some time now.

She sweetly smiled at him while passing an hand through her quills.

"We wanted to change things, brother… And in order to do so… We need to change our life style, first…"

And she started her tale…

* * *

**_In the beginning… W__e were only Me, Bark, Bean, the polar bear and the green duck you knew earlier, and their small group of desperate rebels, including that "Nasty Hyenas" gang you've already met as well… They saved me from Eggman's robots while our parents and other sister had been taken away…_**

_**I'm sorry Knuckles… They didn't make it.**_

_**At that time, I sincerely thought I was the last of my kind… And therefore, I had to do something about it… I had to get revenge over the heartless bastard who destroyed our noble race!**_

_**That's when He… Came in our aid.**_

_**He promised to us the weapons we would have needed to fight our battle and in turn he wanted our collaboration against the common menace.**_

_**He was an old chipmunk by the name of… Maximillian Acorn. **_

_**Yes… Brother. THAT Maximillian Acorn… The former ruler of Mobotropolis and current member of the Mobian Council…**_

* * *

"SAY WHAT!!?" A reasonably bewildered Knuckles yelled.

"We're almost ready, now… All we have to do, is to wait for his signal… And then, attack!" She enthusiastically raised her closed fist to exclaim her point.

"… Where did he get the weapons? And how many people knows about this?" He asked, not hiding his concern.

"Non-signed G.U.N. artillery… As for the second question: Only me, him, my most loyal soldiers and… Max's best friend and field agent."

"… Sir Charles Hedgehog! Well… That makes sense." The male pondered. "… So you knew all along that I was alive and with the F.F. Militia, didn't you?" He then asked.

She lowered her gaze, clearly ashamed.

"I'm sorry… He made me promise absolute secrecy for the benefit of our mission… This was too important… There's no room for personal feelings during wartime." She sorely said, trying to sound balanced and convinced… She failed miserably since she almost sobbed.

He could understand her quite well… Her duty before everything. They were so similar.

"But I'm happy that you came to me, instead… There is an even more important matter we need to discuss." She now sounded dead serious.

She turned her back to him and took a couple of glasses and a bottle of some fine liquor out of nowhere…

"Uuuuh… I don't drink." He timidly said.

"Just try it… Don't be childish!" She teased.

"I AM NOT A FREAKING CHILD!!!" He childishly replied.

In that precise moment, someone else entered the tent… Knuckles recognized him as that scarred green hedgehog he'd seen before.

The badass looking rodent opened his mouth, revealing unexpected sharp teeth.

"Bean is about to use Ari as a living practice target for his bombs… Again." He reported in an almost disrespectful tone.

"Let them be…" She calmly replied.

"Fine… This is gonna be fun!" He said before leaving.

Knuckles had observed him the entire time. There was something in him that he didn't like at all… It was probably because he was an hedgehog… The red echidna hasn't had very good experiences with hedgehogs, as we know it.

"Here…"

Tikal gave her younger brother a glass full of that purple substance. He immediately drank it.

She seemed amused… But only for an instance.

"Knuckles… You and I are the last members of our race, you know that?" Her brilliant blue eyes showed all the seriousness and the authority that made her the great leader that she used to be.

"I know, Tikal, I know all too well." He sadly nodded.

"For this reason… Brother, you must understand that the tragic circumstances of this situation had left us without much of a choice… We are the only ones who can save our heritage and legacy from been erased for good!"

"And… How can we possibly do such thing?" He naively asked.

She fixed her gaze on him… Utter sadness and a considerable amount of shame was visible in her.

"In order to avoid extinction… We need to…" She took the longest and hardest breath she could ever manage to get… Before, finally, saying it. "… Procreate life."

Silence.

Wide cerulean eyes.

Mouth agape.

And over all… Shock.

He heard her right… She said it… She just proposed it… His own sister!

In order to preserve his… Their race from disappearing forever… Only one way was left to be taken… The unnatural way… The most forbidden among sins…

Incest.

His body started to shake violently and the glass he was holding in his hand inevitably hit the ground.

She stared at him with even more guilt.

"The poison I've put in your drink while you were distracted by Scourge has started working…"

And now… Now that he found himself completely weak and defenseless… For the first time, he was truly and genuinely frightened.

"No… No, Tikal, don't do it… I'm begging you…" He weakly plead, now almost immobilized.

"IT'S THE ONLY WAY, KNUCKLES!!! DON'T BE A CHILD AND TAKE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES HAS A MOBIAN!!!" She yelled, on the verge of tears. "Like it or not… You are going to be the father of my child… So, just relax!"

"One more echidna won't be enough to save our race… Unless…" Horror was now clearly visible in his face.

"It's all natural, Knuckles… How did you think the humans or the first Mobians used to procreate their respective species? The idea of considering incest a sin came only with the birth of the first so-called 'civilized society'!" She replied… More to convince herself than her brother.

"T-that's where you're wrong… We may be the last two Mobian echidnas in the world… But, for Chaos's sake, we're not the last MOBIANS!!! We can have children with other races and save our own as well!"

"It'll be bastardized! Echidnas must be PURE!!!" She had enough of his futile efforts… She just pushed him on her bed, which happened to be right behind her unwilling lover.

By now, his lied body was completely immobile. His "beloved" sister was above him. Her pure blue eyes were now bloodshot because of the uncontrollable tears… Tikal was openly crying.

"Please… Forgive me… And love me… Please, love me, brother!"

And then… She kissed him on his lips…

And then… It just happened.

* * *

**Later the same day, in the outskirts of Westopolis.**

He was still throwing up and by the looks of it… He hadn't any intension to stop.

How could she… His own sister… Do such thing to him!?

His body was feeling a profound sickness… A deforming scar that would have accompanied him for the rest of his mortal life.

He could still feel it… It has been inside of her… INSIDE OF HER!!!

Again… He vomited.

A few nasty thoughts crossed his traumatized mind…

Thoughts of Rage… Hate… Utter Disgust…

And… That… One… That…

NO! He couldn't let that particular thought to prevail… It was too sinful… To wrong… He just couldn't think of her in that way… He just couldn't…

Love her.

A distant voice was yelling at him. He weakly turned to see who was it.

It was that green hedgehog, what was his name? Scourge!

The villainy looking rodent stopped his run right in front of the mentally beaten echidna.

"Our mistress wants you to have this!" He gave Knuckles a peculiar purple jewel. "She was about to give it to you but then you've suddenly left for no apparent reason…" He added while showing a mischievous smile.

The red one gave a good look at the gem… It was a Chaos Emerald, there was no doubt about it.

Knuckles nodded at the hedgehog, who had the audacity to ask him a very delicate question…

"So… How was it?"

The punch he received was strong enough to send him back to the camp he came from.

"Hedgehogs…" The pissed off echidna angrily muttered.

The emerald in his huge grasp was quite a sight to behold… It's beauty was undeniable… It's color, so similar to his eyes…

It was the first time that Knuckles was actually holding a Chaos Emerald… And a single thought crossed his mind.

He dismissed it a second later…

Then he thought about it again…

And again, he dismissed it…

Until he finally said: "Oooooh… What the fuck!!!"

He raised the gem high above his head and yelled the famous spell.

"CHAOOOOOOOS… CONTROL!!!"

The gem started glowing like mad and a green aura encircled a very bewildered Knuckles… Right before disappearing into, guess what, nothingness.

* * *

From her tent, She could sense it… Her plan had worked.

Now, it was all up to her brother to find the real truth… The secret about Ixis Naugus and the 7 Chaos Emerald... In the place were it all began.

"Good luck… My love." She quietly muttered to herself while caressing her belly.

* * *

**_Now, let's see… I'm seeing a hill full of ridiculously huge mushroom__s on my left…_**

_**A city made out from sand on my right…**_

_**An immense frozen wasteland right in front of me…**_

_**And behind me… A very, very long fall… Because it seems that I ended up on some kind of giant floating piece of land…**_

_**Now, a question came spontaneous…**_

_**WHERE IN THE HOLY HIGH CHAOS-FREAKIN'-DAMN HELL AM I!!!!!**_

And so… Knuckles freaked out.

* * *

**A/N: It concludeds on "Tails, Knuckles and Sonic"**


End file.
